NotebookLM Video Research Skill

Automate NotebookLM notebook creation from YouTube videos with automatic research and Audio Overview generation.

Core Principle

Screenshot before every action — verify UI state, identify correct elements, confirm success.

📸 Screenshot → 👀 Analyze → 🎯 Target → ✅ Verify → 🖱️ Execute → 📸 Screenshot → ✓ Confirm

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Quick Start Workflow

Phase 1: Research

# 1. Get video info
Control Chrome:open_url("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID")
Control Chrome:get_page_content()

# 2. Research people mentioned
web_search("[Person Name] background career")

# 3. Create research document (keep under 500k chars)

Phase 2: NotebookLM Automation

# 1. Navigate
Control Chrome:open_url("https://notebooklm.google.com/")

# 2. Create notebook
# Click "Create new" button

# 3. Add YouTube source
# Click "Websites" → Enter URL → Click "Insert"

# 4. Add research document  
# Click "Add sources" → "Copied text" → Paste content → Click "Insert"

# 5. Generate audio
# Click "Audio Overview" in Studio panel

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Critical: Element Targeting

⚠️ The Main Trap

NotebookLM has multiple textareas. Generic selectors grab the wrong one!

SIDEBAR (wrong)          CENTER MODAL (correct)
┌──────────────┐         ┌──────────────────┐
│ Search box   │         │ URL/Text input   │
│ query-input  │         │ "Paste any links"|
└──────────────┘         └──────────────────┘

Correct Selectors

| Element | Selector | |---------|----------| | URL input | textarea[placeholder="Paste any links"] | | Text input | textarea[placeholder="Paste text here"] | | Sidebar (AVOID) | textarea[placeholder*="Search"] |

Angular Event Pattern

// Simple .value = doesn't work! Use this:
var setter = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(
    HTMLTextAreaElement.prototype, 'value'
).set;
setter.call(textarea, 'content');
textarea.dispatchEvent(new Event('input', {bubbles: true}));
textarea.dispatchEvent(new Event('change', {bubbles: true}));

Button State Check

var btn = document.querySelector('button');
if (btn && !btn.disabled && !btn.className.includes('disabled')) {
    btn.click();
}

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Complete Code Snippets

Enter YouTube URL

var urlTextarea = document.querySelector('textarea[placeholder="Paste any links"]');
if (urlTextarea) {
    var setter = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(
        HTMLTextAreaElement.prototype, 'value'
    ).set;
    setter.call(urlTextarea, 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID');
    urlTextarea.dispatchEvent(new Event('input', {bubbles: true}));
    urlTextarea.dispatchEvent(new Event('change', {bubbles: true}));
}

Enter Research Text

var pasteTextarea = document.querySelector('textarea[placeholder="Paste text here"]');
if (pasteTextarea) {
    var setter = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(
        HTMLTextAreaElement.prototype, 'value'
    ).set;
    setter.call(pasteTextarea, RESEARCH_CONTENT);
    pasteTextarea.dispatchEvent(new Event('input', {bubbles: true}));
    pasteTextarea.dispatchEvent(new Event('change', {bubbles: true}));
}

Click Button by Text

var buttons = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('button'));
var btn = buttons.find(b => b.textContent.includes('Insert'));
if (btn && !btn.disabled) {
    btn.click();
}

Verify State

// Check what textareas exist
var textareas = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('textarea'));
textareas.map(t => ({
    placeholder: t.placeholder,
    value: t.value.substring(0, 50)
}));

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Checkpoint Summary

| Step | Verify Before | Verify After | |------|---------------|--------------| | Navigate | - | Home page loaded | | Create notebook | Create button visible | Notebook opened | | Add URL | Correct textarea identified | URL in center, not sidebar | | Click Insert | Button ENABLED | Source added | | Add text | Correct textarea identified | Text in center, not sidebar | | Click Insert | Button ENABLED | 2 sources shown | | Audio Overview | Studio panel visible | Generation started |

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Anti-Patterns

| ❌ Don't | ✅ Do | |----------|-------| | document.querySelector('textarea') | textarea[placeholder="Paste any links"] | | Click without checking state | Verify button enabled first | | Assume action succeeded | Screenshot to confirm | | Rush through steps | Wait for async operations |

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Wait Times

| Action | Wait | |--------|------| | Page navigation | 3s | | Dialog open | 2s | | YouTube source processing | 8-10s | | Text source processing | 5s | | Audio generation | 5-10 minutes |

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Error Recovery

Wrong input targeted:

1. Clear sidebar: document.querySelectorAll('.query-input').forEach(el => el.value = '')
2. Re-target with specific selector

Button disabled:

1. Re-dispatch events on textarea
2. Verify content actually entered

Modal didn't open:

1. Wait longer
2. Click trigger button again